New Insights Into Plant Evolution

Monash University
ScienceDaily
Feb. 28, 2013
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130301123314.htm

Summary:

In a recent published study, researchers from Monash University and collaborators in Japan and the U.S., identified for the first time a particular gene that regulates the transition between stages of land plant life cycle. This has may provide a potential for engineering better crops. In contrast of animal life cycle, alternation of generation occur in plants cycle. A professor and a doctor removed a gene, known as KNOX2  from moss, and they found that this caused the diploid generation to develop as if it was a haploid. This is a phenomenon known as apospory. If this happens to us humans, our entire bodies will turn out to be either eggs or sperm. The researchers found that this may provide possibilities for the mutations in the gene cause the plant to skip a generation. When a plant produces seeds identically by skipping the haploid generation, a.k.a gametophyte, it will maintain some desirable characteristics of the mother plant. This mutation, termed apomixis, would make high-qualities crops cheaper and easier to plant. 


Connections:
This articles is greatly connected with our current unit on plant. It overly talks about how alternation of generation can be related to agriculture and how a new genetic mechanism will benefit agriculture. This article demonstrate that a better knowledge of the molecular basis of plant reproduction and alternation of generations will eventually set new genetics engineer techniques in motion, which definitely will be beneficial to our daily life.